Consumer preferences for improved hen housing: Is a cage a cage?
Bibliographic record
Abstract
There is growing concern amongst some consumers regarding animal welfare in livestock production. Several regions, including California and the European Union, have banned the use of battery cage production systems for laying hens. In Quebec, battery cages are being phased out with new barns required to be equipped with enriched cages. In this paper, the empirical data from two discrete choice experiments (DCE) are used to understand Quebec consumers’ demand for alternative laying hen housing systems and desired attributes. The results of the first DCE suggest that Quebec consumers are not willing to pay a premium for eggs produced in enriched cage systems, in spite of evidence that they prefer aspects of that system. Using an online survey we find that consumers have a negative stigma related to the word ‘cage’. A second DCE is therefore conducted to estimate consumer preferences for different amenities commonly found in enriched cage systems, without the possible negative framing effect from the word “cage”. The results suggest that consumers have a positive value for the enhanced housing system for laying hens, results also indicate a differentiated demand for the various elements of the enhanced system. Les consommateurs sont de plus en plus soucieux du bien-être animal. Plusieurs régions, incluant la Californie et l’Europe, interdissent l’élevage de poules dans des systèmes de cages traditionnelles. Au Québec, ce type de cage sera graduellement éliminé, les producteurs ayant collectivement décidé que les nouvelles constructions seront équipées de cages enrichies. Ce papier présence les résultats de deux enquêtes avec choix expérimentaux discrets (CED) qui permettent de mieux comprendre la demande des consommateurs québécois pour les différents éléments d’un système de cage enrichie. La première enquête démontre une absence de valeur positive pour ce système, bien que les éléments du système de cage enrichie soient valorisés. Une enquête en ligne démontre un fort biais négatif associé au mot cage. Un deuxième CED, qui n’utilise pas le mot cage, est utilisé pour déterminer les préférences des consommateurs pour les différents éléments d’un système de cage enrichie. Les résultats indiquent une valeur positive pour le système enrichie avec des valeurs différenciées selon les éléments qui composent ce système de logement des pondeuses.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".